


Water Lilies

by lizwontcry



Category: Mermaids (1990)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5467199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizwontcry/pseuds/lizwontcry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate has found a way to make her mother and sister get along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Water Lilies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celaenos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celaenos/gifts).



> Happy holidays, and I hope you dig it! I heart this movie.

_If you have forgotten water lilies floating_  
On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade,  
If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance,  
Then you can return and not be afraid. 

_But if you remember, then turn away forever_  
To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart,  
There you will not come at dusk on closing water lilies,  
And the shadow of mountains will not fall on your heart. 

Water Lilies - Sara Teasdale

****

_1964_

This is how Kate finally found a way to make her sister and her mother start to get along--well, most of the time, anyway: she was training for the Olympics.

Or at least that's what she decided on her tenth birthday. She was going to train for the 1972 Summer Olympics. And nobody could talk her out of it.

"Listen, I'll be 18 by then, and I'll be so good at swimming, and nobody can beat me!" Kate told her mom and sister on the day of her birthday. The day before, Rachel had made some semblance of a wedding cake--it was made of waffles and icing and pancakes and looked like a ticket to the diabetes express. Thankfully, Lou had taken one look at it and laughed and laughed and laughed, and he went to the grocery store and came back with actual ingredients, things that Rachel hadn't even seen in her kitchen before, and made a real birthday cake for Kate. It was chocolate with chocolate icing and it even said "Happy Birthday Kate" on it, and Kate was so excited, she jumped up and gave Lou the best hug ever. 

Now they were eating the birthday cake in the kitchen, and Kate had watched as Charlotte and her mother fought about something so stupid, Kate didn't actually know what it was about. Ever since her accident, the two of them had come to a weary truce, but it was starting to wear off. And short of Kate almost tragically dying again, she didn't know how to make them. stop. fighting. She was going to have to run away just like Charlotte did if they didn't stop.

"Okay... that sounds like a worthy goal," Rachel said, already calculating in her head how much training for an Olympic sport was going to cost. Lou squeezed her hand, as if he was reading her mind, and she knew he would help her all he could. Of course, she'd tell him no, she didn't need his help, and they'd fight about it for weeks, and eventually she'd let him because she has finally learned that the needs of her kids come before Rachel's urge to be self-sufficient and stubborn. It's not like Rachel wasn't independent--she made it this far with her two girls, hadn't she? So maybe it's okay to accept the help every now and then. And that's why she squeezed Lou's hand back.

"We'll be there whenever you need us," Charlotte added. 

"Well, good, because I have a request," Kate said. Lou, Charlotte, and Rachel looked at her expectantly, and she suddenly knew how much power she had in her hands, as the baby of the family. This was something she would continue to exploit for a long time, even though she was the "good girl." 

"Oh, we can't wait to hear about it, darling," Rachel said, and while Kate didn't know much about sarcasm, she sensed her mom could actually wait for it and was just saying she couldn't to mess with Kate.

"At my meets, I always want one of you there to watch me. Both, preferably. And there's going to be a lot of them, but I want you to promise me. Because it's important to me, and someday, when I'm rich and famous, it will be important to you, too."

Lou and Charlotte and Rachel all looked at each other incredulously. What were they supposed to tell her? That it would be impossible to promise something like that? That they were all busy and had lives of their own and couldn't possibly make it to every single swimming meet she ever had?

Charlotte was the first one to speak. "Kate, honey, lovely sister of mine... I don't know if we can agree to that. That's nine years of a commitment. We just--"

"I know that," Kate said, interrupting her sister. "But I'm sure you guys can figure it out. I'm serious. I want you there. I don't ask for much, do I?"

"Other than to be fed and clothed and taken care of, I guess not," Rachel said. "Kate... all I can say is we'll try. We will try. But I'm not comfortable promising you _anything._ I don't even know if we're going to stay in this craphole of a town for much longer." Lou swung his head towards her, and Rachel laughed and pat his hand. "Don't worry, you can come with us."

Lou smiled in spite of himself... he didn't want to move, but now he was so tied into this little family and these girls and this woman that he would do anything for them. Including go to potentially thousands of swim meets because Kate asked him to politely.

Charlotte and Rachel shared a look for a moment and then shrugged. There really wasn't any use telling Kate no--she was the only thing they ever agreed on, after all. She was the peacemaker. She was the glue holding the family together. They knew there were going to be obstacles in this promise they were about to make, but they'd get through them together. That was how this worked, right? Compromise?

"Fine, Kate, we promise," Charlotte said. "We will do our best to come see all of your matches."

Kate squealed and jumped up and hugged all three of them. Even she knew it might be an impossible promise, but just the fact that Charlotte and Rachel even thought they could get on the same page was enough for Kate--at least for now.

"Thank you," Kate said. "You are the best mother and sister a girl could have."

Charlotte and Rachel looked at each other again and laughed. They both knew that it wasn't true at all. Charlotte let Kate almost drown while she took up with the bus driver, and Rachel, well, she knew she wasn't the greatest mother, but she tried. Most of the time.

"And you're the best daughter I've ever had," Rachel said. Charlotte snorted.

The four of them enjoyed their real cake with real icing and real ingredients while they tried not to think too much about the impossible promise they just made.

****

_1969_

Kate could do anything, it seemed like. She could swim through pools, creeks, lakes, rivers, oceans, mountains, and still be the best swimmer. She could do her homework, her friends' homework, everyone's homework, and still make the best grades. She could flirt with boys, and every one of them would flirt back. How she became the most popular girl at school, the most ambitious, the one with the most potential, she doesn't know. It just kind of happened overnight.

She could do all these things and that would make her happy, but what made her the happiest was the harmony she somehow caused in her own household. Rachel and Lou got married a few years ago, and Rachel was--well, she wasn't not exactly happy or anything, but she never talked about moving anymore. Rachel was settled. And Charlotte was--if you could believe it--a math teacher at the local middle school. She didn't live at home anymore, but she still made it to most of Kate's swim meets when Rachel couldn't get there. A lot of the time, Rachel and Charlotte came together. Kate would get excited every single time. She still pointed them out to her teammates and coach and waved enthusiastically. She often felt like she achieved the impossible. 

"Do you remember when Mom used to call you a water lily?" Charlotte asked Kate one day. They were eating actual sandwiches that Lou made, with meat and mayonnaise and everything. There wasn't a toothpick to be seen.

"No! When did she ever call me that?" Kate was always interested in learning more about her mother.

"When you first learned how to swim. It was like... the water was your natural habitat. Mom started calling you Water Lily like all the time. I was so jealous, I jumped in the pool just so she'd call me that, too. I forgot I didn't know how to swim."

Kate giggled. "That was dumb."

"Yeah, it was," Charlotte admitted. "Of course, she jumped in and saved me, and wouldn't let me forget about it. Still doesn't. But that is when I knew for sure... yeah, she's kind of hard to live with, but she'll always save me. I forgot about that when I was a teenager. That's--I guess that's why I ran away."

They both reflected on that tumultuous time in their lives. Thank goodness they made it over the hump.

Soon, she was going to have to move in with the other pre-Olympic swimmers and train all the time. Kate was sure her mother and Charlotte were quite looking forward to this, since they couldn't possibly promise to be there 24/7 for her. And Kate was okay with that, because she was confident the peace she managed to broker will continue. If nothing else, Kate was an optimist.

****

_1972_  
Kate qualified easily and made it to the 1972 Olympics without much hassle. She watched as a lot of her friends over the years became disinterested in swimming and dropped out to be activists, or started doing a lot of drugs that made being devoted to anything very difficult. Kate would admit, sometimes she wanted to drop everything and be a hippy, too. But she'd been focused on the Olympics since she was eight years old, and it was going to happen for her, she knew it in her heart. And so did her mom and Charlotte and Lou. They were her everything. They supported her through every injury and every defeat (although there weren't many of those) and she knew she could count on them for anything. That wasn't the case back in the days of the civil war of Charlotte and Rachel.

Of course, the 1972 Olympics were full of tragedy, and that overshadowed anything else that happened there. However, Kate still managed to get a gold medal, and she was ecstatic about it. She achieved her dream after all this time! But most of all, she was happy and proud that she somehow brought her family together again. For life.


End file.
